We at Winding Road are big believers in the merits of performance driving schools. With our nation’s rather lax standards for licensure and an almost complete absence of evasive maneuver/accident avoidance training, everyone can benefit from additional time behind the wheel with a qualified instructor.

Making good on this notion, we recently emptied our Ann Arbor offices, rounded up a passel of press cars, and headed down to The Mid-Ohio School in Lexington, Ohio, for a day of corporate instruction. Everyone from our writers to our copy editors and fleet manager made the trip.

The school’s staffers, brimming with motorsports experience in all manner of racing series (closed- and open-wheel), proved to be adept and professional trainers in short order. We received a minimum (but useful) amount of classroom time, and had the opportunity to flog their Honda Civic Coupes in a variety of settings. We negotiated slalom courses, autocross cone setups, emergency lane-change maneuvers, wet corners, and perhaps best of all, a pair of skid-car courses.

The latter deserve special mention, as skid cars are at once wonderfully educational and amusing devices. These specially equipped Hondas ride on hydraulic casters controlled by the instructor’s input. The setups force the vehicle into skids and various low-grip scenarios, allowing for the simulation of everything from black ice to mid-corner inside-rear-tire breakaway. Neat stuff.

We can recommend The Mid-Ohio School without reservation but imagine that Lexington isn’t in everyone’s back yard the way it is ours. With that in mind, we heartily encourage interested parties to save their pennies and get to a high-performance driving school. That money you were scrimping together for that trick new speed part for your car? We’re guessing you’ll get more results and smiles out of spending it on a proper school, whether you’re trying to improve lap times or simply become a safer, better driver.

This column marks my first issue in the editor’s chair, and I continue to be thrilled with our progress here in Ann Arbor. Over the past year, it has been an indescribable honor to share masthead space with the likes of David E., William Jeanes, and countless other contributors who have helped inform and mold my enthusiasm for automobiles and the written word over the years.

While WINDING ROAD continues to grow in staff size and technical capabilities, we pledge to continue to lay bare the industry’s best and brightest vehicles for your enjoyment and scrutiny, to champion the causes of enthusiast vehicles of all stripes and price points, and to bring you stories and perspective that you won’t find anywhere else.

This month, we’re pleased to celebrate the unbridled optimism of cars like Reeves Callaway’s extraterrestrial C16 (above), as well as more attainable performance propositions like Dodge’s Caliber SRT4 and Saab’s renewed 9-3. But whether you’re contemplating a rare and racy roadster or a piece of altogether more earthly iron, the biggest “quality of life” upgrade you can make as an enthusiast is a commitment to honing your driving skills.

What are you waiting for? Get back to school, already.

Motor vividly,
Chris Paukert

Magazine Issue: Winding Road Issue 26